Location-based services

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are provided for delivering location-based services, wherein the location-based services may include storing data defining a plurality of physical locations and a plurality of geofences associated with the physical locations, monitoring a current location of a user device, comparing the current location of the user device with each of the geofences, and determining based on the comparison that the current location of the user device is within a particular geofence. Rankings are assigned to the physical locations associated with the particular geofence based on various criteria, including, for example, distances between the user device and the physical locations, user interactions with the physical locations, user preferences, demographics, or consumer purchase history. User-selectable icons corresponding to the physical locations are output at the user device, wherein the positions of the user-selectable icons in an interface are determined based on the assigned rankings.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/545,429 filed Aug. 20, 2019; which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/437,756, filed Jun. 11, 2019; which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/859,603, filed onDec. 31, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,321,264, issued on Jun. 11, 2019;which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/624,083,filed on Feb. 17, 2015; which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/534,797, filed on Nov. 6, 2014, now U.S. Pat.No. 9,654,923, issued on May 16, 2017; which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/361,113, filed on Jan. 30, 2012, now U.S.Pat. No. 8,909,248, issued on Dec. 9, 2014; which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/690,720, filed on Mar. 23, 2007, nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,326,315, issued on Dec. 4, 2012; which is a divisionalof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/140,273, filed on May 27, 2005,now U.S. Pat. No. 7,848,765, issued on Dec. 7, 2010; the disclosures ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the field of location-based services, and moreparticularly to the field of location-based services involving portableelectronic facilities.

Description of the Related Art

Location systems have been developed for determining and tracking thelocations of the users of mobile devices such as cellular phones,including global positioning systems (GPS), as well as varioustriangulation systems that use cellular telephone signals, broadcasttelevision signals, or the like. Dead reckoning systems also exist fordetermining locations of devices based on movement in reference to a setof known coordinates. However, to date the uses of such systems havebeen limited. A need exists for improved systems for usinglocation-based information for a variety of purposes.

SUMMARY

A variety of methods and systems are disclosed herein that include thecapability of tracking mobile devices, such as cellular phones. Invarious embodiments, the present invention may provide an adaptable userinterface, which may transmit a current location of a portableelectronic facility, such as to another device or system and may receivean electronic storage file or other indication of the current locationof the portable electronic facility. The file or message may containcode the enables a specific user interface capability for the portableelectronic facility, so that it displays a version of the user interfacebased on the contents of the electronic storage file, message or othercontents. The portable electronic facility may take various forms, suchas, without limitation, a mobile phone, a GPS enabled mobile phone, aCDMA enabled mobile phone, a GPRS enabled mobile phone, a mobile phonewith a camera, a mobile phone with browser capabilities, a GPS unit, atracking unit, a portable electronic device with a compass, a laptopcomputer, a personal digital assistant, an MP3 player, a camera, ahandheld device, a pager, and/or a portable gaming device. The portableelectronic facility may be wearable.

The storage file may be transmitted from a remote location and maywithout limitation be in a format such as an XML document, a script, anHTML document, a program, a database, a table, a message, a folder, anapplication, an animation and/or a text file. The storage file maycontain user interface information, such as specific menus that may befor a specific location and/or specific allocations that may be for aspecific location. The storage file may be updatable, wherein the usermay manually update the storage file with information or wherein thestorage file may be automatically updated with information. The updatemay occur when a user stops at a location. The user may modify theinterface. The adaptable user interface may produce results, such as ananswer to a user's query.

An adaptable user interface may provide for receiving location-basedinformation associated with the portable electronic facility andoutputting a version of such information through the portable electronicfacility. The information may be received in response to a transmissionof the location of the portable electronic facility. The output versionof such information may without limitation be visual, audio, afacsimile, an email, voice, a light, a change in the intensity of alight, a change in the color of a light, via SMS, via an instantmessage, via a text message, and/or an application that may only beavailable at certain locations. In some embodiments, at least one menuitem may be changed in response to the information.

The information may be defined in relation to an object and/or alocation. The information may be a geocentric list. The information maybe specific to a user and may without limitation alter the look and feelof the facility, alter the functionality of the facility, be in an XML,format, be in a database format, and/or be in a text file format. Analert, which may relate to an item on a list, may be triggered inresponse to the information.

The present invention may provide for location tracking, wherein alocation of a portable electronic facility may be transmitted, stored ina file, stored with other information in the portable electronicfacility, and reported along with an indication of the movement of theportable electronic facility. The information itself may be displayed ona map and may comprise an indication of speed and/or direction.

The present invention may provide business information by storing thelocation of a plurality of portable electronic facilities, possibly inan electronic storage file or a location-containing file, which may beremote. The invention may provide access to the storage file, which maycontain information pertaining to demographics, locations and motion ofthe portable electronic facilities. Access to the storage file orinformation may be password protected and the storage file orinformation may be encrypted. The storage file may be an XML document, adatabase, a table or a text file.

The invention may provide demographic information associated with theportable electronic facilities. Tracking information may constitutetraffic patterns.

The present invention may provide methods and systems for effectingchange on a portable electronic facility in response to locationinformation. The method may involve receiving location information onthe portable electronic facility and effecting a change on the portableelectronic facility based on the location information. The change mayinvolve activating the portable electronic device, powering off portableelectronic device, placing the portable electronic device in standbymode, starting an application, stopping an application or the output ofinformation. The output may involve audio, video, a picture related alocation, fax, email, instant message, text message, SMS, internetprotocol, voice, voicemail, vibration, stimulation at least one of thefive senses or an alert. The alert may involve fax, email, instantmessage, text message, SMS, internet protocol, voice, voicemail,vibration or stimulation of at least one of the five senses.

The change may involve a reminder regarding an item on a list and thelist may be a geocentric list. The change may involve a change to atleast one item on a menu. The change may affect the availability of anapplication. The change may also involve enabling free calling whenwithin a certain geofence, such as within a home or a user-definedgeofence.

The location information may relate to the accuracy of the locationinformation. The information may refresh continuously, in accordancewith set preferences or in response to a request. The frequency of therequests may be varied in response to speed, location, specifiedpreferences, proximity to a point of interest, or changes in a geofence.A user may make a request, such as a request for help, such as inresponse to pressing a panic button or activating a panic mode on aportable electronic facility.

The present invention may provide for methods and systems of triggeringthe output of location-based information involving receiving informationvia a portable electronic facility and outputting location-basedinformation based on the received information. The information may bereceived via a sensor, which may measure the parameters of a device,facility or vehicle.

The present invention may provide methods and systems for locationdetermination involving capturing characteristics of a location using aportable electronic facility, transmitting those characteristics andreceiving location based information. The characteristics may becaptured as a picture, a photograph, verbally or using at least onesensor. The characteristics may be transmitted via SMS, fax, email,instant message, text message, internet protocol, voice, voicemail,GPRS, CDMA, WAP protocol, internet, text or as a file.

The present invention may provide methods and systems of varyingtransmissions for a portable electronic facility involving varyinginformation transmissions to a portable electronic facility and varyinginformation transmissions from a portable electronic facility. Thelength or frequency of the transmissions may be varied. The variationmay be in response to velocity, direction, location, a point ofinterest, an object, preferences, a location with respect to a geofenceor changes in a geofence. The variation may result in increased batterylife for the portable electronic facility. The data may be stored andtransmitted all at one or it may be transmitted as it is updated.

The present invention may provide methods and systems of increasing thequality of location based information for a portable electronicfacility, involving varying information transmissions to a portableelectronic facility and varying information transmissions from aportable electronic facility. The length or frequency of thetransmissions may be varied. The variation may be in response tovelocity, direction, location, a point of interest, an object,preferences, a location with respect to a geofence or changes in ageofence.

In an embodiment the information transmissions may be from multiplesources. The multiple sources may be different networks or differentmeans of communication. The means of communication may be SMS, fax,email, instant message, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA,WAP protocol, internet or text. The information may be transmitted in acostless manner, a cost reduced manner or in the form of a DNS lookup.

The present invention may provide methods and systems of increasing thequality of location based information for a portable electronic facilityinvolving obtaining multiple data points for a given item of informationor a location. The multiple data points may be analyzed and outliersdropped. The analysis may be performed using an algorithm. The item ofinformation may relate to location, velocity or direction.

The present invention may provide methods and systems of defining ageofence on a portable electronic facility involving inputting thegeofence using the portable electronic facility. The center and a radiusof a geofence may be entered on the portable electronic facility. Thegeofence may be defined using a cursor on the display of the portableelectronic facility. The geofence may be defined using a touch screen onthe portable electronic facility. The geofence may be defined by thelocation of the portable electronic facility. The geofence may bedefined by placing the portable electronic facility at certain pointscomprising the geofence. The geofence may be defined in real time byplacing the portable electronic facility at certain points comprisingthe geofence. The geofence may be manipulated using the portableelectronic facility. The geofence may be moved using the display of theportable electronic facility. The geofence may be moved using theportable electronic facility. The geofence may be a circle, a sphere, inthe shape of any closed polygon, a closed volume, in two dimensions, inthree dimensions or may travel with a person.

The present invention may provide methods and systems of defining ageofence on a computer screen involving inputting the geofence through auser interface. The geofence may be defined or moved about the interfaceusing a pointing device such as a mouse or stylus. The radius, shape ordimensions of the geofence may also be defined or changed using apointing device such as a mouse or stylus.

The present invention may provide methods and systems of sendinglocation-based alerts involving determining the location of a portableelectronic facility and sending an alert based on the location of theportable electronic facility. The alert may be in response to thelocation of a portable electronic facility with respect to a geofence.The alert may be via audio, video, fax, email, instant message, textmessage, SMS, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, vibration or maystimulate at least one of the five senses. The alert may be communicatedvia one of the following means of communication: SMS, fax, email,instant message, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA, WAPprotocol, internet or text.

The present invention may provide methods and systems of analyzinginformation related to at least one portable electronic facilityinvolving transmitting information from the at least one portableelectronic facility and analyzing such information using an analysisengine. The information from one or more portable electronic facilitiesmay be stored or aggregated. The analysis engine may provide the abilityto view location history or analyze location history. The analysisengine may also request additional information or send alerts. Theanalysis engine may perform analytics on location information such asdemographic analysis, predictive analysis and descriptive analysis. Theinformation provided by the analysis engine may include purchasinginformation, personal preferences, demographics or consumer purchasingdata relating to individual consumers or classes of consumers.

Access to the analysis engine, the system and information may be grantedat different access levels. A user may be granted partial or restrictedaccess via a guest login. It may be that whether a user is permitted toknow the location of another user is determined based on the accesslevels of the users.

Methods and systems disclosed herein may include methods and systems forverifying a transaction using a portable electronic facility. Methodsand systems disclosed herein may include methods and systems fortailoring information to the behavior of a user, such as observing thebehavior of a user and communicating information to the user by aportable electronic facility, such as information based on the observedbehavior of a user. Methods and systems disclosed herein may includemethods and systems for providing information to a portable electronicfacility based on information received from the portable electronicfacility, including location information. A network of portableelectronic facilities may be provided, allowing communication amongportable electronic facilities, including information based on thetracked locations of the portable electronic facilities. In embodimentsinformation is communicated directly among the portable electronicfacilities, without use of a central server. Information may becommunicated by SMS, fax, email, instant message, internet protocol,voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA, WAP protocol, internet and/or text.

Several possible graphical user interfaces may be presented on aportable electronic facility. The interface may display a map or a menuor provide an overview of the locations of all the users in a definedgroup or of the location history of a particular user. The view mayinvolve the use of tiled maps. The graphical user interface may presenta stop report. A geofence may be created using a graphical userinterface and an icon may be assigned to a geofence. A graphical userinterface may also display an address book or be used to define alerts.Graphical user interfaces may also be used to present of points ofinterest on a portable electronic facility. A graphical user interfacethat may allow a user to vary the frequency with which a portableelectronic device obtains location information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of components of a location services facility.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of additional components of the locationservices facility.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an aspect of a peer-to-peer configurationof the location services facility.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of one aspect of the location servicesfacility in operation.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of part of the locationservices facility.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a portable electronic facility.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a GPS state machine.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the major components of the locationservices facility of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a map overlaid with a geofence and a geographic location.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an adaptable user interface.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an adaptable user interface.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of location tracking.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram relating to the provision of businessinformation.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram relating to effecting change on a portableelectronic facility.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram relating to outputting location-basedinformation on a portable electronic facility.

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram relating to location determination.

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram relating to varying transmissions to andfrom a portable electronic facility.

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram relating to increasing the quality oflocation based information on a portable electronic facility.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram related to defining a geofence on a portableelectronic facility.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram related to defining a geofence on a computer.

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram relating to sending location-basedalerts.

FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram relating to analyzing information relatedto at least one portable electronic facility.

FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram relating to verifying a transaction usinga portable electronic facility.

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram relating to tailoring information to thebehavior of a user.

FIG. 25 is a schematic diagram relating to providing information to aportable electronic facility based on information received from theportable electronic facility.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram presenting a network of portable electronicfacilities.

FIGS. 27A-27C present several graphical user interfaces that may bepresented on a portable electronic facility.

FIG. 28 depicts a graphical user interface providing an overview of thelocations of all the users in a defined group.

FIG. 29 provides a view of the locations of the users in a definedgroup.

FIG. 30 presents a detailed display of the location information for oneparticular user.

FIG. 31 presents a stop report.

FIG. 32 shows a geofence.

FIG. 33 shows several icons that may be assigned to a geofence.

FIG. 34 depicts an address book.

FIG. 35 presents a more detailed view an address book.

FIG. 36 depicts a graphical user interface that may be used to definealerts using the system.

FIGS. 37A-37C depict location details as both lists and maps.

FIGS. 38A-38C depicts several menus related to storing location-basedinformation.

FIGS. 39A-39D depict several graphical user interfaces related to thepresentation of points of interest on a portable electronic facility.

FIG. 40 presents a graphical user interface that may allow a user tosend location information via email or voice.

FIG. 41 presents a graphical user interface that may allow a user toinput a zip code.

FIGS. 42A-42B presents a graphical user interface that may allow a userto vary the frequency with which a portable electronic device obtainslocation information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 8, the present invention comprises alocation services facility that may provide services or data productsassociated with a geolocation datum 104 associated with a portableelectronic facility 300. The location services facility may comprise adatabase 100 containing aggregate data 102, an application server 108,and a Web server 110. The location services facility may provide theaggregate data 102, in raw or processed forms, to a third-party serviceprovider 200. In some embodiments, the present invention may comprise anetwork 304, which in some embodiments may be a peer-to-peer (P2P)network, comprising a plurality of facilities wherein each of theplurality of facilities may be a portable electronic facility 300 acrosswhich may be distributed the database 100, or its equivalent orconstituent components 302, containing, in whole or in part, theaggregate data 102. An expanded view of one aspect of the P2P network isshown in FIG. 3. These embodiments are discussed in detail below andother embodiments will be apparent from the following discussion.

Referring to FIG. 4, the disclosed invention may gather a datum 104 froma portable electronic facility 300. The datum 104 may be stored in thedatabase 100. In particular, the datum 104 may be representative of aposition and/or velocity associated with the portable electronicfacility 300. Alternatively or additionally, the datum may berepresentative of an output value from a sensor associated with theportable electronic facility 300. In most cases, an additional datum 104from the portable electronic facility 300 or another portable electronicfacility 300 may also be stored in the database. The aggregate of aplurality of datum 104 from one or more portable electronic facilities300 may comprise aggregate data 102, which may be stored within thedatabase 100.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the aggregate data 102 may flow from thedatabase 100 to the application server 108. The application server 108,in turn, may provide an application based service, a number of which aredescribed below and the general provision of which further comprise thedisclosed invention. The application based service may be provided to auser of the portable electronic facility via a Web interface such as aWeb browser. In this case, embodiments may comprise the Web server 110for delivering the service.

Referring to FIG. 2, the aggregate data 102, in whole or in part, may beprovided to a third-party service provider 200 in a predeterminedformat, which may be specified by an XML schema. As provided, the datamay be formatted or modified according to various needs, includingwithout limitation a need of a first end user 202 who may be a dataconsumer (such as, revealing consumer behavior); a need of a second enduser 204 who may be a user of the portable electronic facility (such as,obeying a privacy agreement associated with the data); and/or a need ofthe third-party service provider 200 (such as, receiving data in a filethat is formatted to facilitate automated processing). When formatted,the data may comprise a report, which may be a computer generatedreport.

The third-party service provider 200 may in turn provide a service tothe first end user 202 or the second end user 204, wherein the servicemay be associated with the data. In some cases, the first end user 202may be a marketing organization. Other cases will be apparent due to thefollowing description.

In one embodiment, the aggregate data 102 may be disaggregated andprovided to the third-party service provider as a single data point.This may be useful in many applications including, but not limited to, aservice that provides to the end user a map showing the location of theuser and the user's immediate surroundings; a service that provides tothe end user a map showing the location of a point of interest in thevicinity of the user; a service that provides to the end user a mapshowing the location of another user; a service that provides to the enduser a map showing the location of a pet associated with the user,wherein the pet may be fitted with a collar containing a portableelectronic facility; the establishment of a geofence (described below indetail) and the monitoring of the portable electronic facility withrespect to its crossing the geofence; and so forth.

In another embodiment, the aggregate data 102 may be scrubbed andprovided to the third-party service provider 200 as a generalizeddataset. This may be useful in many applications including, but notlimited to, a service that may provide to a marketing companydemographic information that may be representative of the generalizeddataset, which may be representative of a plurality of users in a givengeographical area; a service that may provide the user with highwaytraffic information that may be based upon aggregate traffic flows,which may comprise the generalized dataset; and so forth. For exampleand without limitation, in one application, the generalized dataset,which may comprise demographic information, may be representative ofusers' gender and spending habits, wherein the spending habits comprisethe means and routes utilized by the users to arrive at a shoppingdestination. The generalized dataset may further comprise a uniqueidentifier associated with each user represented, wherein the uniqueidentifier may obscure the identity of each user while also allowing thethird-party service provider 200 to discriminate between users,especially during an analysis of the generalized dataset.

In yet another embodiment, the aggregate data 102 may be provided in itsentirety to the third-party service provider 200 as a comprehensivedataset. This may by useful in many applications including, but notlimited to, a service that may provide to a logistics company detailedtracking information pertaining to a fleet of delivery vehicles, whereineach vehicle is located and tracked through time; a service that showsto a head of a household a plurality of locations representative of eachof the members of the household; and so forth. For example and withoutlimitation, a company providing cleaning services may utilize theaggregate data 102 to track how long its employees dwell at eachcustomer location and which routes the employees take to travel to eachcustomer location. This information may be useful in monitoring theefficiency of its employees and in optimizing assignments given toemployees, for example and without limitation, by grouping jobs given toa particular employee into a smaller geographical area.

In still yet another embodiment, the aggregate data 102 may be processedto provide a service to a plurality of users. One example is a socialnetworking application. For example, without limitation, a datingservice may allow the plurality of users to enter individual preferenceinformation associated with a desired characteristic of a mate.Processing of the aggregate data 102 may allow the service to recognizewhen pairs of mutually desirable mates are in close proximity of eachother. Data associated with this recognition may be transmitted to oneor both users in the pair, allowing the users in the pair to meet eachother. This transmission of data may be in the form of an alert, such asa text message, e-mail, automated telephone call, and so forth. Foranother example, an interested-based social network application mayallow the plurality of users to enter individual preference informationassociated with a favorite pastime, such wine tasting. Processing of theaggregate data 102 may allow the service to recognize when eventsassociated with the favorite pastime are being held in proximity to theusers. Relevant users may be notified and additional information, whichmay encourage social interaction between the users, may be provided tousers on the basis of the contents of the aggregate data 102. Forexample, a subset of users may, based upon observed travel patterns inthe aggregate data 102, be likely carpool candidates to a local winetasting event.

Generally, in embodiments, the aggregate data 102 may be disaggregated,scrubbed, reformatted, transmitted as-is, stored, processed, and/orformatted in any practicable manner that is useful to any particularthird-party application. Moreover, in embodiments, an alert may betransmitted to a user, wherein the alert comprises data that isassociated with a recognition that is associated with some form orcomponent of the aggregate data.

Referring now to FIG. 5, in one aspect, a system according to thepresent invention may comprise a database server 500, which may comprisethe database 100; a Web/Application server 502, which may comprise theapplication server 108 and the Web server 110; and a storage device 504,which may store the database 100. It should be clear to one of ordinaryskill in the art that these servers may exist as one computer, asindependent computers, as a network of workstations, as a clustercomputer, as a part of a three-tier configuration such as a Web clientconnected via the Internet to a plurality of Web servers and applicationservers connected to one or more database servers, and so forth.

In one embodiment, a dual Internet connection 508 may arrive at a Cisco6509 CIS load balancer/firewall/switch 510. Additionally connected tothe Cisco 6509 510 may be an a-side 512 and a b-side 514 network, whichmay have independent main power sources. A Dell 1855 10-blade server 502may bridge the two networks and may run a Web server and two applicationservers, namely a mapping server and a routing server. There may be, ineach of the a-side 512 and b-side 514 networks, a Dell 2850 databaseserver 500 which may be connected to a RAID 5 storage facility 504.

The database server 500, as is mentioned above, may store datarepresentative of positions and/or velocities, which may be theaggregate data 102 and which may be associated with a plurality ofportable electronic facilities 300.

The database server 500 may also store information pertaining to theuser's privacy or security. The user may be provided an option to chooseif the location and/or velocity of the portable electronic facilityassociated with the user is recorded in the database 100. This enablesprivacy by allowing the user to determine the persistence of dataassociated with the user. The user may also be asked to provide apersonal identification number (PIN), which may be entered into ahandset that may be the portable electronic facility 300. This PIN,perhaps in conjunction with the handset's phone number, comprises anauthentication code needed to access a service enabled by the presentinvention, for example and without limitation, a Web site that providesa map showing the location of the user.

The database server 500 may also store information pertaining to theuser's level of access to a service enabled by the present invention.This access level may be used to determine a user's privileges. In oneinstance, a parent may want to allow a child to have access to thelocation of other family members, but not allow the child to establish ageofence (described below) or an alert. In another instance, a pluralityof handsets may be configured as peers in the network 304 when thenetwork 304 is embodied as a P2P network. In this embodiment of thenetwork 304, a first peer may exchange location and/or velocity datawith a second peer provided that the second peer has an appropriatelevel of access to such information from the first peer. In yet anotherinstance, the exchange of information from the first peer to the secondpeer may be conditioned on the second peer having both the appropriatelevel of access and the user of the second peer providing a PIN and/orauthentication code that corresponds to a code stored in the database100.

In other embodiments, some or all of the information pertaining to theuser's level of access to a service is stored in the distributeddatabase component 302 associated with the portable electronic facility300.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the application server 100 may host ageospatial application. The geospatial application may providegeo-coding, mapping, or routing functionality. Mapping functionality maycomprise overlaying onto a map a current location and a plurality ofstored, past locations of the portable electronic facility. Routingfunctionality may comprise overlaying onto the map the current locationof the portable electronic facility 300 along with a calculated pathfrom the current location to a specified destination. The calculatedpath may be a straight line, a route that follows geographic featuressuch as a road or a river, a path between navigational aids such as veryhigh frequency omnidirectional range (commonly known as a VOR), a greatcircle path, and so forth. Both the routing and mapping functionalitymay be provided by a commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) application, suchas the MapQuest Enterprise Server.

The application server 100 may host an alert application. The alertapplication may transmit the alert to a user in response to theoccurrence of an event designated by the user as an alert-generatingevent. The alert may be sent via e-mail, short message service (SMS),interactive voice response (IVR), voice, instant message (IM), or anyother practicable method.

The application server 100 may host a geofencing application, whichmonitors the location of one or more portable electronic facilities withrespect to a geofence.

The Web server 110 may provide a front-end interface to the user. Thepages served by the Web server 110 may include geo-coding, mapping,routing, geofencing, or any other functionality supported by theapplication server 108 or the database 100.

The portable electronic facility 300 may take a number of portableforms, including but not limited to a cell phone; a PDA; an electronicwatch; a handheld GPS; a laptop computer; a portable music player suchas an Apple iPod; an electronic keychain; a camera; or any otherportable electronic facility.

Referring now to FIG. 6, in addition to including technology providingfor the ascertainment of the location of itself, the portable electronicfacility 300 may comprise additional capabilities and facilities, suchas a random access memory facility 600; a display facility 602, whichmay comprise a color display, a backlight, a liquid crystal display(LCD), a light-emitting diode (LED) screen, an organic light-emittingdiode (OLED) screen, a flexible organic light-emitting diode (FOLED)screen, or a projection display; a power facility 604, which maycomprise a battery, a power port, a photovoltaic facility such as asolar cell, or a fuel cell; an input facility 608, which may comprise atouch pad, a key pad, a stylus-based input facility, a speakerphone, ora microphone; a data communication facility 610, which may comprise atelescoping antenna, a fixed external antenna, an internal antenna, aserial data port, a parallel data port, a WiFi facility, a Bluetoothfacility, or a ZigBee facility; a central processing unit 612; anoperating system 614; a software application 618 such as but not limitedto a game, a relationship management application, an expense tracker, ato-do list, a calendar, a notepad, a Web browser, an e-mail client, anaudio file player, a photo viewer, a video viewer, a text editor, a timetracker, a day planner, a clock, a calculator, a dictionary, a fileviewer, a synchronization manager, a virtual private network (VPN)client; and so forth.

The portable electronic facility 300 may provide functionalitycomplementary to and, in some embodiments, enhancing the location basedservice. Such functionality may include Web browsing, Web searching,wireless communication, software application execution, softwareapplication interpretation, entertaining lighting effects, a moving mapdisplay, a static map display, a map display with zoom capability, acolor map, a grayscale map, a black-and-white map, and so on.

In various embodiments, the portable electronic facility 300 could beused in a vehicle, while camping, during the exploration of terrain,mounted on an animal such as but not limited to a dog collar, during agame, while walking through a city, and so forth.

The portable electronic facility 300 may communicate with the otherelements of the location services facility, for example and withoutlimitation the application server 108, the Web server 110, the database100, the third-party service provider 200, the first end user 202, thesecond end user 204, another portable electronic facility 300, thedistributed database component 302, the peer-to-peer network 304, thedatabase server 500, the Web/application server 502, the storage device504, the dual internet connection 508, the Cisco 6509 510, the A-sidenetwork 512, and/or the B-side network 514. This communication maycomprise two-way communication or one-way communication. In embodiments,the portable electronic facility 300 may comprise a radio frequency (RF)transmitter/receiver providing the capability of sending and/orreceiving data from a cellular telephone network. The portableelectronic facility may also or alternatively comprise an RFtransmitter/receiver for sending and/or receiving data from a local areanetwork, such as and without limitation an 802.11 b “WiFi” network. Thedata communication facility 610 may further comprise a physicalconnector, such as a docking port, which may allow for thesynchronization of data to and/or from the portable electronic facility300 and a host computer, such as a personal computer.

One consideration in the design of the portable electronic facility 300may be battery life. There are a number of factors that may affectbattery life. One factor may be the power density of the battery.Another factor may be the volume of the battery. Yet another factor maybe the power consumption of the portable electronic facility 300connected to the battery. In the portable electronic facility 300, it istypical for the power consumption to be dominated by RF transmissionelectronics that may be integral to the facility 300 and of which thedata communication facility 610 may be comprised. This is due totheoretical and practical limitations of the physics of RF transmission.The battery life of the portable electronic facility 300, then, may beimproved by limiting the amount of time that the portable electronicfacility 300 is transmitting data: the transmission electronics may bepowered down the rest of the time. Likewise, it is known that the powerconsumption of RF receive electronics, of which the data communicationfacility 610 may also be comprised, may have a considerable impact onthe battery life of the portable electronic facility 300. It followsthat methods for limiting the amount of time that the portableelectronic facility 300 is sending and/or receiving data may be presentin some embodiments of the location services facility. These methods maycomprise varying the length and/or frequency of transmissions to and/orfrom the portable electronic facility 300.

Another consideration in the design of the portable electronic facility300 may be a speed with which the facility provides the user with dataand/or the accuracy of the data. In embodiments, the portable electronicfacility 300 and/or the location services facility at large may bedesigned to vary the length and/or frequency of data transmissions toand/or from the electronic facility 300 to improve the speed with whichthe facility 300 provides a user with data and/or the accuracy of thedata.

One aspect of the location services facility is to provide locationinformation to the user. Location information may comprise latitude;longitude; altitude; depth; pitch; roll; yaw; time; velocity; ororientation and/or distance to or from a waypoint, an origin, adestination, magnetic north, or true north. The location may bepresented to a user in a number of embodiments including, withoutlimitation, a map, a moving map, an interactive map, a textualdescription, a spoken description, a color code, an aural code, ane-mail, a text message, a pager message, a printout, and so forth.

The location information provided by the location services facility tothe user may originate from the use of various methods incorporatingdata from a sensor facility such as, without limitation, a globalpositioning system (GPS), a radio frequency identification (RFID), aplurality of cell phone towers (for example, for time and/ortriangulation), an altimeter, a depth gauge, a gyroscope (including“gyroscopes” that use a vibrating structure, a laser, or a MEMS device),an inertial sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, a speedometer, aseismometer, a magnetometer, a thermometer, a photon detector(including, but not limited to, a visible camera, an infrared (IR)detector, an ultraviolet (UV) detector, an X-ray detector, a gamma-raydetector, a Geiger counter), a hygrometer, a heart rate monitor, a bloodglucose meter, a blood oxygen meter, an electrical sensor, an electricalinterference sensor, a current sensor, a resistance sensor, athermistor, an electrostatic sensor, a frequency sensor, a temperaturesensor, a heat sensor, a thermostat, a differential light sensor, anopacity sensor, a scattering sensor, a diffraction sensor, a refractionsensor, a reflection sensor, a polarization sensor, a phase sensor, aflorescence sensor, a phosphorescence sensor, an optical activitysensor, an optical sensory array, an imaging sensor, a calibrated micromirror array, a calibrated pixel array, a micro mirror array, a pixelarray, an angular momentum sensor, a rotation sensor, a rotation speedsensor, a rotation direction sensor, a velocity sensor, an inclinometer,a momentum sensor, a smoke detector, a fire sensor, a heat detector, acombined heat and smoke detector, a vapor sensor, a gas sensor, a signalsensor, a wireless signal sensor, a cellular signal sensor, a Wi-Fisignal sensor, an Internet signal sensor, a touch sensor, a contactsensor, a viscosity sensor, a position sensor, a height sensor, a raydetector, a microwave sensor, a proximity sensor, a distance sensor, amotion sensor, a range sensor, a mote, a marker, a powered marked, asignal emitter, a signal receiver, a powered signal emitter, a poweredsignal receiver, a chemical sensor, a fire sensor, a hazardous materialsensor, a hazardous vapor sensor, a biohazard sensor, a bacteria sensor,a virus sensor, an anthrax detector, a nerve gas sensor, a poisonous gassensor, a carbon monoxide detector, an energy sensor, or an aerosolsensor. RFID tracking may, without limitation, comprise a portableelectronic facility further comprising a RFID transponder that isinterrogated by electronic equipment that is installed along a roadway,along a sidewalk, at the entrance of a building, at the egress of abuilding, or in a building. Once created, the location information maybe compiled, accessed, processed, searched, sorted, or in any other waymanipulated for the benefit of the first end user 202, the second enduser 204, or any other entity that values the user's locationinformation. In embodiments a location may be obtained from a database,such as based on the location of a wireless access facility, such as aWi-Fi or 802.xx access point, switch, or similar device.

In embodiments, an individual location information sample, which may bea datum 104, may be subject to errors, which may be due to physical orpractical limitations of the location services facility. For example,cell phone triangulation systems are limited by RF multipath effects dueto large metal structures such as building or water towers. One methodof compensating for these errors may comprise processing multiplelocation samples to determine, via statistics or heuristics, to whatextent the individual location information sample may be reliable.Another method of compensating for these errors may comprise processingmultiple location samples to determine an aggregate location informationsample that may include information such as mean location and standarddeviation, which may provide a more accurate determination of locationthan the individual location information sample.

Referring now to FIG. 7, the portable electronic facility 300 maycomprise a state machine 702 heuristic approach to obtaining a GPS fix700. The state machine 702 may comprise a plurality of states, 704, 708,710, 712, 714, and 718. The state machine 702 may comprise a fix delay,which may be a string that may be processed by the central processingunit 612, the operating system 614, the software application 618, thegeolocation facility 620, or any other facility associated with thegeolocation facility 620. In the plurality of states,“mposition:delay=low” may indicate a fix delay that may take no greaterthan 32 seconds to provide a limited degree of computation fordetermining a low-accuracy velocity of the portable electronic facility300. “mposition:delay=high” may indicate a fix delay that will take nogreater than 3 minutes and 32 seconds to provide a substantial degree ofcomputation for determining a high-accuracy velocity of the portableelectronic facility 300.

The Inside State 704 may reflect that the facility 300 may be receivingthe GPS fix 700 from a tower. In this state, the facility 300 may sleepfor 90 seconds and then may attempt to receive a fix, at first, usingmposition:delay=low and then for every fix thereafter usingmposition:delay=high. Should the facility 300 receive five fix attemptsin the Inside State 704, the facility 300 may go into the Sleep State704.

The Stopped State 710 may reflect that the facility 300 may be receivingthe GPS fix 700 from a satellite and that the facility 300 may beassociated with a speed, according to the fix's National MarineElectronics Association's (NMEA) string 720, of approximately 0kilometers per hour (KPH). In this state, the facility 300 may sleep forapproximately 90 seconds and then may attempt to receive a fix usingmposition:delay=high. Should the facility 300 receive five sequentialGPS fixes 700 in the Stopped State 710, the device may go into the SleepState 704. In the Stopped State 710, the facility 300 may send every GPSfix 700, of which a datum 104 may be comprised, to a datum receivingfacility, which may, without limitation, comprise the database 100, theapplication server 108, the Web server 110, another portable electronicfacility 300 such as via the P2P network 304, or any other facilityassociated with the database 100 or the distributed database component302.

The Moving Slow State 712 may reflect that the facility 300 may bereceiving the GPS fix 700 from a satellite and may be associated with aspeed, according to the fix's NMEA string 720, of greater thanapproximately 0 KPH and less than approximately 17 KPH. In this state,the facility 300 may sleep for 60 seconds and then may attempt toreceive the GPS fix 700 using a mposition:delay=high and every GPS fixmay be sent to the datum receiving facility.

The Moving Med State 714 may reflect—that the facility 300 may bereceiving the GPS fix 700 from a satellite and may be associated with aspeed, according to the fix's NMEA string 720, of greater thanapproximately 17 KPH and less than approximately 106 KPH. In this state,the facility 300 may sleep for 30 seconds and then may attempt toreceive the GPS fix 700 using mposition:delay=high and every GPS fix 700may be sent to the datum receiving facility.

The Moving Fast state 718 may reflect that the facility 300 may bereceiving the GPS fix 700 from a satellite and may be associated with aspeed, according to the fix's NMEA string 720, of greater thanapproximately 105 KPH. In this state, the facility 300 may sleep for 10seconds and then may attempt to receive a GPS fix 700 usingmposition:delay=high and every GPS fix may be sent to the datumreceiving facility.

The Sleep State 704, as is mentioned above, may reflect that thefacility 300 may have received five GPS fixes in a row in the StoppedState 710 or may have receive five GPS fixes in a row in the InsideState 708. In this state, the device may sleep for approximately twominutes and then attempt to receive a GPS fix 700 alternating with theuse of mposition:delay=high and mposition:delay=low.

The state machine may also note a significant position change wherein anew GPS fix may generate a measured change in distance of greater than10 kilometers. A check for the significant position change may be takenon every GPS fix 700 in the Sleep State 704 or Inside State 708.

When the portable electronic facility 300 is switched into anoperational mode, the facility 300 may make an attempt to retrieve a GPSfix using an mposition:delay=low. If the facility 300 cannot receive asatellite GPS fix 700 on a first fix attempt, the facility 300 mayimmediately or soon thereafter make another attempt to receive a GPS fix700 using mposition:delay=high. In either case, the facility 300 mayconsequently be considered to be initialized.

The facility 300 may, based upon its current state, make attempts toreceive the GPS fix 700 at a rate, which may be periodic. In the eventthat the GPS fix 700 cannot be obtained or is invalid, the facility 300may alert a user of the facility 300. In the event that a valid GPS fix700 cannot be obtained during five consecutive attempts, the facility300 may discontinue attempts to get the GPS fix 700, which maynecessitate a manual restart of the facility 300 to renew attempts toobtain the GPS fix 700.

Once obtained or calculated, the location information, which maycomprise the GPS fix 700, may be used in an application serviceincluding, but not limited to, an entertainment application service suchas location-aware games, a commerce application service such aslocation-based transactions, an information application service such asmapping a route from an origin to a destination, or any otherapplication service specified, mentioned, implied, or made apparent bythis discussion.

Referring now to FIG. 9, as mentioned above, the location servicesfacility may support a geofencing application that involves the geofence900. In one case, the geofence 900 is the circumference of a circle thatis defined by a user who specifies a geographic location 902 for itscenter and a radius. In general, the geofence 900 may be defined as anyarbitrary boundary between one geographic area and another, wherein theboundary may be stationary or may move, wherein said movement either maybe correlated to the movement of a physical object such as the portableelectronic facility 300 or may be determined arbitrarily. In any case,the geofencing application may be the alert application and, therefore,may generate the alert when the portable electronic facility 300 crossesthe geofence 900. This alert may be transmitted to the user whospecified the crossing of the geofence 900 as an alert-generating event.Alternatively or additionally, this alert may be transmitted to a seconduser who either opted to receive the alert or who was designated toreceive the alert. Optionally, the alert may pertain to a facility inthe vicinity of the geofence 900, such as and without limitation anadvertisement for a nearby restaurant.

In embodiments, the user may define and/or manipulate a geofence 900 viathe Web browser of the three-tier architecture. Alternatively, the usermay define and/or manipulate a geofence 900 via the portable electronicfacility 300, for example and without limitation via the input facility608 of the portable electronic facility 300.

The location services facility may support a number of end uses. One enduse may comprise a location based adaptable user interface. For example,in an embodiment, the portable electronic facility 300 may be a cellphone. A screen integral to the cell phone may display information tothe user of the cell phone. Under usual circumstances, the screen maydisplay a small menu of options, such as show location and getdirections. However, when the cell phone is within proximity of arestaurant, the screen may display an additional menu option make dinnerreservation. This adaptation to the menu of options is an example of alocation based adaptable user interface.

Another end use may comprise the tracking of the location of theportable electronic facility 300, which has been described above.

Yet another end use may comprise providing business informationassociated with the portable electronic facility. For example, acomprehensive stop report provided by the location services facility maycomprise a plurality of entries comprising a stop identification, atime, a duration, and a location. The stop identification may comprise aunique identifier comprising a number associated with a stop made by adelivery truck. The time may be associated with a time at which thedelivery truck stopped. The duration may be associated with the timethat the delivery trucked dwelled at the stop. The location may beassociated with the geographic location of the stop. In total, thecomprehensive stop report may provide information useful to an operatorof a business in monitoring the performance of a fleet of deliverytrucks.

Still yet another end use may comprise remotely affecting the portableelectronic facility 300. In one embodiment, the location servicesfacility may start, stop, or change an application on the facility 300.The application may comprise, without limitation, a map, a route, ato-do list, a calendar, a calculator, an expense report, a mileagetracker, a phone book, and so forth.

Another end use may comprise outputting location information on theportable electronic facility 300. As is mentioned above, the portableelectronic facility 300 may provide to the user location informationassociated with the portable electronic facility 300, for example andwithout limitation, information in the form of a map. The portableelectronic facility 300 may augment the information provided by thelocation services facility with information from the sensor. Forexample, the location services facility may provide mapping informationto the portable electronic facility 300 according to the location dataprovided by the facility 300 to the location services facility. Uponthis map, the facility 300 may overlay an artificial horizon, whichprovides pitch and roll information to the user. This pitch and rollinformation may be provided to the portable electronic facility 300 bythe sensor.

Yet another end use may comprise outputting location information on theportable electronic facility 300, wherein the location informationitself depends upon the output sensor. For example, in an embodimentwherein the sensor is a visible camera, images of surrounding terrainmay be captured by the camera and may be transmitted to the locationservices facility. The location services facility may analyze theseimages and transmit location information associated with the images backto the portable electronic facility 300. This location information maythen be output by the portable electronic facility 300 for presentationto the user.

More generally, a plurality of end uses may comprise presenting locationbased information to the user in response to the characteristics of alocation. In one embodiment, as described above, the characteristics ofa location may be the terrain in the vicinity of the location. In otherembodiments, the characteristics of a location may, without limitation,comprise the barometric pressure, humidity, temperature, radioactivity,depth, infrared lighting, visible lighting, ultraviolet lighting, and soforth.

Another end use may comprise providing location information associatedwith a transaction. In one embodiment, a person may present a creditcard associated with the user to a merchant at a point of sale. Themerchant or merchant's bank may query the location services facility todetermine the location of the portable electronic facility 300associated with the user. If the portable electronic facility 300 islocated at the merchant then the user may be presumed to be located atthe merchant and the person may be presumed to be the user. Therefore,the transaction may be authorized. Conversely, if the portableelectronic facility 300 is located at a location other than at themerchant then the location of the user may be deemed to be in questionand the person is may not be deemed to be the user. As a result, thetransaction may be denied or the merchant may be required to furtherverify the identity of the user.

Yet another end use may comprise tailoring information to the behaviorof a user. In one embodiment, the location services facility mayrecognize that the route a user usually takes to and from work issuboptimal. In response to this behavior of the user, the locationservices facility may provide to the user a custom tailored,daily-commute route map.

More generally speaking, end uses of the location services facility mayprovide information to the portable electronic facility 300 based oninformation received from the portable electronic facility 300,including but not limited to information associated with the user'sbehavior.

Referring now to FIG. 10, the present invention may provide an adaptableuser interface 1000, which may transmit a current location 1002 of aportable electronic facility 300, such as to another device or systemand may receive an electronic storage file 1004 or other indication ofthe current location of the portable electronic facility 300. The fileor message may contain code the enables a specific user interfacecapability for the portable electronic facility 300, so that it displaysa version of the user interface 1000 based on the contents of theelectronic storage file 1004, message or other contents. The portableelectronic facility 300 may take various forms, such as, withoutlimitation, a mobile phone, a GPS enabled mobile phone, a CDMA enabledmobile phone, a GPRS enabled mobile phone, a mobile phone with a camera,a mobile phone with browser capabilities, a GPS unit, a tracking unit, aportable electronic device with a compass, a laptop computer, a personaldigital assistant, an MP3 player, a camera, a handheld device, a pager,and/or a portable gaming device. The portable electronic facility 300may be wearable.

The storage file 1004 may be transmitted from a remote location and maywithout limitation be in a format such as an XML document, a script, anHTML document, a program, a database, a table, a message, a folder, anapplication, an animation and/or a text file. The storage file 1004 maycontain user interface information, such as specific menus that may befor a specific location and/or specific allocations that may be for aspecific location. The storage file 1004 may be updatable, wherein theuser may manually update the storage file 1004 with information orwherein the storage file 1004 may be automatically updated withinformation. The update may occur when a user stops at a location.

In embodiments, the storage file 1004 may be stored locally and/orremotely. The storage file 1004 may contain similar locations, such aswithout limitation points of interest, which may be displayed based uponfactors such as speed, location, and/or user preference. The userpreference may be maintained in a user-preference file, which may bestored locally and/or remotely, and which in certain embodiments maycomprise the storage file 1004.

In embodiments one feature of the adaptable user interface 1000 is thatthe user may modify the interface 1000. For example, a menu selectionmay be modified, automatically and/or manually. Selections from the menumay be added, such as from a list of menu options. Another feature ofthe adaptable user interface 1000 is that an application selection maybe modified, automatically and/or manually, wherein the modification maybe the addition and/or removal of an application, which may be selectedfrom an available list. Yet another feature of the adaptable userinterface 1000 is that it may maintain location specific information,wherein the information may be available near the location, wherein userorders may be created. The user orders may be based without limitationon a user list; the proximity of a store; an order sent by text; anorder sent by voice; or another order that may be transmitted. Thelocations in the storage file 1004 may be based on a coordinate system,such as and without limitation the Cartesian coordinate system; thepolar coordinate system; latitude and longitude; and/or latitude,longitude and altitude.

The adaptable user interface 1000 may produce results, such as an answerto a user's query. The results may be based on the location of theportable electronic facility 300, wherein the results may be sortedbased on the speed and/or direction, preferences, and/or accessibilityof locations of the portable electronic facility 300. Web search resultsmay be based upon the location of the portable electronic facility 300and may be sorted based on portable electronic facility 300 speed,portable electronic facility 300 direction, preferences, and/oraccessibility of locations. A localized search may be conducted based onthe location of the portable electronic facility 300, wherein the searchresults may be sorted based on portable electronic facility 300 speed,portable electronic facility 300 direction, preferences, and/oraccessibility of locations.

Referring now to FIG. 11, an adaptable user interface 1000 may providefor receiving location-based information 1100 associated with theportable electronic facility 300 and outputting a version 1102 of suchinformation 1100 through the portable electronic facility 300. Theinformation 1100 may be received in response to a transmission of thelocation of the portable electronic facility 300. The output version1100 of such information 1102 may without limitation be visual, audio, afacsimile, an email, voice, a light, a change in the intensity of alight, a change in the color of a light, via SMS, via an instantmessage, via a text message, and/or an application that may only beavailable at certain locations. In some embodiments, at least one menuitem may be changed in response to the information 1100. Moreover, theuser may modify the interface 1000.

The information 1100 may be defined in relation to an object and/or alocation. Multiple networks may supply the information 1100, which maybe altered such as created, updated, supplemented, augmented, reduced,encoded, decoded, encrypted, decrypted, and/or deleted. Alterations maybe at a frequency that may be based on the velocity of the portableelectronic facility 300 and/or the location of the portable electronicfacility 300. The information 1100 may be a geocentric list.

The information 1100 may be specific to a user and may withoutlimitation alter the look and feel of the facility 300, alter thefunctionality of the facility 300, be in an XML format, be in a databaseformat, and/or be in a text file format.

An alert, which may relate to an item on a list, may be triggered inresponse to the information 1100.

Referring now to FIG. 12, the present invention may provide for locationtracking 1200, wherein a location 1202 of a portable electronic facility300 may be transmitted, stored in a file 1204 (which, in embodiments,may comprise the electronic storage file 1004), stored with otherinformation (such as and/or associated with aggregate data 102, datum104, geographic location 902, and so forth) in the portable electronicfacility 300, and reported along with an indication of the movement 1208of the portable electronic facility 300. The file 1204 may be storedremotely (such as and without limitation in database 100, in adistributed database component 302, in a database server 500, and/or ina storage device 504). The file 1204 may maintain an archive 1210 of aplurality of locations 1202 associated with the portable electronicfacility 300, which may be displayed and in which an indication ofmovement 1208 may be reported.

The information itself may be displayed on a map 1212 and may comprisean indication of speed and/or direction 1214. The location 1202 may bemasked, wherein the masking may involve substituting a differentlocation for the actual location 1202.

In applications, the location tracking facility 1200 may be used byfamilies to track members of the family, such as children or elderlymembers of the family. For example, in tracking the location of a child,the tracking may identify a position, within a yard, upon the activationof certain triggers, such as upon request by another family member, ifthe child is lost, and/or only at specified times such as a day of theweek and/or time of day. For example, in tracking the location ofelderly, the tracking 1200 may be in a home, in a hospital, and/or in acare facility.

In other applications, the location tracking 1200 may be used to trackdriving and/or vehicle location. This tracking 1200 may comprisetracking location 1202, speed, and/or a set path. An alarm, which may bean alert, may be sent when the driving is classified as speeding. Analert may also be sent if the vehicle position is outside a boundary,wherein the boundary is associated with shipping a hazardous material.In some applications, the location tracking may encompass the vehiclelocation of every vehicle in a fleet.

In general applications, the tracking 1200 may be remotely set,permanently enabled, and/or disabled only from a remote location. Thus,the portable electronic facility 300 may be controlled remotely, whichmay include the remote control of an application (such as and withoutlimitation software application 618) within the portable electronicfacility 300.

In yet another application, the tracking 1200 may be used for computergaming, wherein one or more features of the game may be based on thereal-world location 1202 of the portable electronic facility 300. Inembodiments the real-world location 1202 of the portable electronicfacility 300 may be used to trigger other actions or events within thegame. In such embodiments, the real-world location may be fed to aprogram or system that generates game conditions based on the location,such as from a table, database, or other facility, or based onreal-world information associated with the location, such as weatherinformation, stored views of the location, maps of the location, or thelike. For example, the current weather conditions in the environmentsurrounding the portable electronic facility 300 may be retrieved from aserver that obtains weather information, and a game operating on theportable electronic facility 300 may present similar conditions to theuser of the portable electronic facility 300, such as in a role-playinggame, a driving game, first person shooting game, or other simulationgame. Similarly, a map for area surrounding a user may be used togenerate a simulated environment in the game that resembles the user'sreal world environment. For example, locations of buildings and roadscan be used to create a “track” in a driving game, or to createobstacles or locations in a role-playing game. In embodiments locationsof other portable electronic facilities 300, such as those used byfriends or family members of a user, can be used to generate gameelements, such as to allow users to “race”, “battle”, or otherwiseinteract in a multi-player game that draws elements such as weather,roads, or buildings from the real-world environments of the users of theportable electronic facilities 300. Thus, in a variety of embodiments, agame on a portable electronic facility 300 may be location-based.

In still another application, the location tracking 1200 may be used asa basis for selecting entertainment such as determining available shows,movies, and/or food facilities. For example, a menu of video or movieclips may be made available based on the location of the portableelectronic facility 300, such as showing movies that contain scenes thatdepict areas that are in proximity to the current location of thefacility 300, showing tourist information for the area near the facility300, or the like.

In still yet another application, the tracking 1200 may be associatedwith a police activity, such as, without limitation, trackingshoplifters, tracking criminals, placing a portable electronic facility300 in a money bag, and/or placing a portable electronic facility 300 ina bank teller drawer.

In another application, the tracking 1200 may be associated with asecurity activity, such as and without limitation tracking people withina facility, wherein the tracking may comprise tracking direction and/orspeed; tracking personnel such as sales people, social workers, homehealth care workers; tracking dangerous substances; and/or trackingdangerous shipments. For example, a geofence may be established around aparticular location, so that an alert is sent if a person exits the areaof the geofence, such as if a home health care worker leaves a scene, aworker enters a hazardous area, a shipment departs from a planned route,a social worker fails to appear at a designated location for anappointment, a maintenance worker fails to appear at a designatedlocation, or the like.

In still another application, the tracking 1200 may be associated with apet, such as and without limitation tracking the pet within a yardand/or if lost. A geofence may be established around the pet, so that analert is sent if the pet departs the region of the geofence.

In yet still another application, the tracking 1200 may be associatedwith a school, such as and without limitation tracking students and/oremployees at all times and/or only if they leave school property. Ageofence around the school can allow a teacher, administrator or parentknow when a child arrives at the school, leaves the school, or the like.Thus, portable electronic facilities 300 can be used to check attendanceagainst the rolls of the school, and to determine the locations ofabsent students who possess such portable electronic facilities 300.

In an embodiment, the tracking 1200 may be associated with health care,such as and without limitation tracking patients, doctors, and/ornurses. In this application, the tracking 1200 may be within a healthcare facility, outside a health care facility, and/or may comprisefinding the closest doctor and/or nurse in an emergency. A geofence maybe established, for example, indicating when a patient has left ahospital, or indicating when a doctor arrives or departs the proximityof the facility, such as to generate an alert if there are not enoughstaff available to handle an emergency.

In another application, the tracking 1200 may be associated with realestate, such as, without limitation, tracking a location of a house forsale, which may be associated with a picture, directions, and/ortracking visitors to the real estate. For example, a portable electronicfacility 300 may be associated with a digital camera, and the locationof a picture or recording, as determined by the tracking facility 1200,may be embedded in the picture or recording for future retrieval of thelocation of the picture. Such a picture or recording location capabilitymay be used to know the location of a real estate location, the locationof an accident, the location where a photo was taken during a vacation,the location of a crime, or the location of another event that isrecorded on the digital camera.

The capability to record the location of a picture or a recording maysupport transport logistics, the adjustment of traffic signals, thedocumentation of potholes, the documentation of defects ininfrastructure, and/or an insurance purpose. The insurance purpose maycomprise documenting the location of accident; capturing a picture orrecording of an accident such as for the purpose of adjusting claims;storing driving habits on file such as for the purpose of determiningsafe driving, which may be associated with changes in insurance pricesbased on driving speed. The picture or recording location tracking maysupport bounty hunters, private investigators, police, detectives, orother in, for example, tracking people. For example, tracking 1200 maysupport tracking a stalker, for example, in determining a distance inrelation to another person where, in some embodiments, an alert that maybe sent to police is sent if the stalker is too close to a person.

In embodiments, the tracking 1200 may support a maid service in, forexample, tracking the time that a maid spends at a location and,perhaps, comparing the actual billed charges to the tracked time.

In embodiments the tracking 1200 may support fleet management in, forexample, tracking the dwell time of a vehicle in the fleet on a locationand, perhaps, comparing an actual billed charge to the tracked dwelltime at a location, which may be a tracked location 1202. This tracking1200 may serve a purpose in project accounting.

The tracking 1200 may support armored cars in, for example, trackinglocations of the armored cars and, perhaps, tracking deviation from aset path. The tracking 1200 may support parole tracking such as thetracking of a person, perhaps with respect to an allowable zone, whereinif the person being tracked is outside an allowable zone (such as andwithout limitation a geofence 900) an alert may be sent. The tracking1200 may support emergency dispatching, which may be associated with aknown location of a person and which may provide directions to the knownlocation. The tracking 1200 may support roadside assistance dispatching,which may be associated with the known location of a person and whichmay provide directions to the known location. The tracking 1200 maysupport an alert, which may be an alert where the alert may be withoutlimitation audio, visual, associated with a location that may be userdetermined, in response to a vehicle, via fax, via email, via instantmessage, via a text message, via SMS, via an Internet protocol, viavoice, via voicemail, in the form of a vibration.

In embodiments, the tracking 1200 may be associated with the location ofa lobster trap, wherein the tracking may be further associated with anindication of whether the lobster trap has been previously checked.

In embodiments the tracking 1200 may be associated with socialnetworking, such as, without limitation, introducing certain people toeach other; introducing certain groups of people; communicating with atleast one individual; and/or communicating with a group of individuals,such as informing them of an event at a location (which may be thelocation 1202).

Referring now to FIG. 13, the present invention may provide businessinformation by storing the location of a plurality of portableelectronic facilities 300, possibly in an electronic storage file 1004or a location-containing file 1204, which may be remote. The inventionmay provide access to the storage file 1004 or 1204, which may containinformation pertaining to demographics, locations and motion of theportable electronic facilities. Access to the storage file 1004 or 1204or information may be password protected and the storage file 1004 or1204 or information may be encrypted. The storage file 1004 or 1204 maybe an XML document, a database, a table or a text file.

The invention may provide demographic information associated with theportable electronic facilities 300, such as the number and types offacilities 300 with particular demographic or other characteristics in acertain area or the speed and location of the facilities 300. Forexample, location information may be associated with demographicinformation or information about past behavior of users of portableelectronic facilities 300, to determine the characteristics of users inan area. For example, if many users within a geofence 900 that isassociated with a large retail store are shown to have high income andto be interested in electronics, then the store can make an announcementabout a high-end electronics item that is for sale. Similarly, if manyusers within the area of a restaurant have a preference for a particularfood (based on past purchases), then the restaurant can prepare to servethat food, such as by ordering and offering that food. Thus, a systemmay include a geofence for establishing a proximity of a location andmay track or take actions based on the characteristics of users withinthat geofence, such as determined by past actions of those users, suchas purchases, browsing, or other behavior performed by the users usingtheir portable electronic facilities 300.

In embodiments, tracking information may constitute traffic patterns,and such traffic patterns may be compared to historical traffic patternsfor infrastructure design.

Referring now to FIG. 14, the present invention may provide methods andsystems for effecting change on a portable electronic facility 300 inresponse to location information 1100. The method may involve receivinglocation information 1100 on the portable electronic facility 300 andeffecting a change on the portable electronic facility based on thelocation information 1100. The change may involve activating theportable electronic device, powering off portable electronic device,placing the portable electronic device in standby mode, starting anapplication, stopping an application or the output of information. Theoutput may involve audio, video, a picture related a location, fax,email, instant message, text message, SMS, internet protocol, voice,voicemail, vibration, stimulation at least one of the five senses or analert. The alert may involve fax, email, instant message, text message,SMS, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, vibration or stimulation of atleast one of the five senses.

In another embodiment the change may involve a reminder regarding anitem on a list and the list may be a geocentric list. For example, thereminder may be to purchase an item at a location in close proximity tothe portable electronic facility 300. For example, a user's grocery listmay be presented in response to the user entering a geofence 900 that isdefined around a grocery store. In another example, the reminder may beto perform a task at a location in close proximity to the portableelectronic facility 300. For example, in arriving within a geofence 900that is defined around a friend's home, a user may be reminded to dropoff an item at the friend's house. Thus, the methods and systemsdescribed herein include location-based reminders, to do lists, and tasklists, and in embodiments the location-based reminders are triggered bythe proximity of a portable electronic facility 300 to a geofence 900that is defined by a user of the portable electronic facility 300.

In another embodiment the change may involve a change to at least oneitem on a menu. For example, the change may be the removal or additionof a class of point of interest from or to a menu. For example, theclass of point of interest may be a hotel, store or tourist location.For example, when a user is far from home, nearby locations of stores,tourist locations and hotels may be presented to a user in the userinterface, but such locations may be removed from the menu when the useris close to home, on the assumption that a user is familiar with storesnear the user's home and that the user will not need hotel or touristinformation near home. In embodiments a portable electronic facility 300may allow a user to modify preferences for what items are presented whena user is near a particular location or far from that location.

In another embodiment the change may affect the availability of anapplication. The change may also involve enabling free calling whenwithin a certain geofence, such as within a home or a user definedgeofence. Thus, a telecommunications system may track user locationsthrough their portable electronic facilities 300, and may determine thepresence of a user within a geofence 900 associated, for example, with ahome, business, school, or other location of the user. Thetelecommunications system may vary the rate charged to the user based onproximity to the geofence 900.

In embodiments location information 1100 may relate to the accuracy ofthe location information or be stored in relation to a particularlocation, coordinate (such as Cartesian or polar coordinates), latitude,longitude or altitude. The information may refresh continuously, inaccordance with set preferences or in response to a request. Thefrequency of the requests may be varied in response to speed, location,specified preferences, proximity to a point of interest, or changes in ageofence 900. The frequency of the requests may also be varied in such amanner as to have the effect of extending the battery life of theportable electronic facility 300. Thus, a power management applicationmay manage the use of a location-based application based on the locationof a user to preserve battery life in a portable electronic facility300.

In embodiments, a user may make a request, such as a request for help,such as in response to pressing a panic button or activating a panicmode on a portable electronic facility 300. The request for help mayinclude location information 1100, information relevant to the emergencyor other information. The request may include a picture or recordingtaken by a camera of the portable electronic facility 300, and thepicture or recording may have embedded in it location information.

In embodiments the location information 1100 may be received via SMS,fax, email, instant message, text message, internet protocol, voice,voicemail, GPRS, CDMA, W AP protocol, internet, text or as a file.

Referring now to FIG. 15, the present invention may provide for methodsand systems of triggering the output of location-based information 1100involving receiving information via a portable electronic facility 300and outputting location-based information 1100 based on the receivedinformation.

The information 1100 may be received via a sensor 1502, which maymeasure the parameters of a device, facility 300 or vehicle. The sensormay provide information relating to the fuel-level of a vehicle. Thefuel may be gasoline, diesel, propane, hydrogen, alcohol-based orethanol. The sensor may transmit the information via Bluetooth or byother means. In embodiments the location-based information 1100 mayconsist of a list of fueling stations in the area, fuel prices and hoursof operation. The sensor may also enable monitoring and thelocation-based information 1100 may be relevant to the monitoring.

Referring to FIG. 16, the present invention may provide methods andsystems for location determination involving capturing characteristicsof a location 1202 using a portable electronic facility 300,transmitting those characteristics and receiving location basedinformation 1100. The characteristics may be captured as a picture, aphotograph, verbally or using at least one sensor. The picture may beentered by a user. The photograph may be taken with a camera on theportable electronic facility 300. The sensor may be a temperaturesensor, a velocity sensor, a direction sensor, an altitude sensor, apressure sensor, a fluid level sensor or a power level sensor. Thecharacteristics may be transmitted via SMS, fax, email, instant message,text message, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA, WAPprotocol, internet, text or as a file.

Referring to FIG. 17, the present invention may provide methods andsystems of varying transmissions 1702 for a portable electronic facility300 involving varying information transmissions 1702 to a portableelectronic facility 300 and varying information transmissions 1702 froma portable electronic facility 300. The length or frequency of thetransmissions 1702 may be varied. The variation may be in response tovelocity, direction, location, a point of interest, an object,preferences, a location with respect to a geofence or changes in ageofence. The variation may result in increased battery life for theportable electronic facility 300. The data may be stored and transmittedall at one or it may be transmitted as it is updated. The data may belocation information 1100.

In an embodiment the information transmissions may be from multiplesources. The multiple sources may be different networks or differentmeans of communication. The means of communication may be SMS, fax,email, instant message, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA,WAP protocol, internet or text. The information may be transmitted in acostless manner, a cost reduced manner or in the form of a DNS lookup.

Referring again to FIG. 17, the present invention may provide methodsand systems of increasing the quality of location based information 1100for a portable electronic facility 300, involving varying informationtransmissions 1702 to a portable electronic facility 300 and varyinginformation transmissions 1702 from a portable electronic facility 300.The length or frequency of the transmissions 1702 may be varied. Thevariation may be in response to velocity, direction, location, a pointof interest, an object, preferences, a location with respect to ageofence or changes in a geofence. The variation may result in increasedbattery life for the portable electronic facility 300. The data may bestored and transmitted all at one or it may be transmitted as it isupdated. The data may be location information 1100.

In an embodiment the information transmissions may be from multiplesources. The multiple sources may be different networks or differentmeans of communication. The means of communication may be SMS, fax,email, instant message, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA,WAP protocol, internet or text. The information may be transmitted in acostless manner, a cost reduced manner or in the form of a DNS lookup.

Referring to FIG. 18, the present invention may provide methods andsystems of increasing the quality of location based information 1100 fora portable electronic facility 300 involving obtaining multiple datapoints for a given item of information or a location 1202. The multipledata points may be analyzed and outliers dropped. The analysis may beperformed using an algorithm. The item of information may relate tolocation, velocity or direction.

Referring to FIG. 19, the present invention may provide methods andsystems of defining a geofence 900 on a portable electronic facility 300involving inputting the geofence 900 using the portable electronicfacility 300. The center and a radius of a geofence 900 may be enteredon the portable electronic facility 300. The geofence 900 may be definedusing a cursor on the display of the portable electronic facility 300.The geofence 900 may be defined using a touch screen on the portableelectronic facility 300. The geofence 900 may be defined by the locationof the portable electronic facility 300. The geofence 900 may be definedby placing the portable electronic facility 300 at certain pointscomprising the geofence 900. The geofence 900 may be defined in realtime by placing the portable electronic facility 300 at certain pointscomprising the geofence 900. The geofence 900 may be manipulated usingthe portable electronic facility 300. The geofence 900 may be movedusing the display of the portable electronic facility 300. The geofence900 may be moved using the portable electronic facility 300. Thegeofence 900 may be a circle, a sphere, in the shape of any closedpolygon, a closed volume, in two dimensions, in three dimensions or maytravel with a person.

In certain embodiments the location of the portable electronic facility300 with respect to the geofence 900 may result in the transmission ofinformation 1702 to the portable electronic facility 300. Theinformation may relate to a coupon, the weather or traffic conditions.In other embodiments the information and geofence 900 may be used forsocial networking. For example, all or certain of the portableelectronic facilities 300 within a geofence 900 may receive informationor all or certain of the portable electronic facilities 300 outside ageofence 900 may receive information.

In another embodiment, services may be linked to a geofence 900. Forexample, all or certain portable electronic facilities 300 locatedwithin a geofence 900 may receive or be eligible to receive certainservices or all or certain of the portable electronic facilities 300located outside a geofence 900 may receive or be eligible to receivecertain services. The service may be a game, application or coupon. Theprice for a service may be varied with the location of a portableelectronic facility 300 in relation to a geofence 900. For example, acell phone may be allowed to place calls at no additional cost iflocated within a certain geofence 900, for example a geofence 900corresponding to the home of the cell phone owner. In another example aportable electronic facility 300 may be able to receive and transmitinformation at no additional cost when located within a certaingeofence, such as the home area of the portable electronic facility 300.

Referring to FIG. 20, the present invention may provide methods andsystems of defining a geofence 900 on a computer screen or similargraphical user interface 2002 involving inputting the geofence 900through a user interface. The geofence 900 may be defined or moved aboutthe interface using a pointing device such as a mouse or stylus. Theradius, shape or dimensions of the geofence 900 may also be defined orchanged using a pointing device such as a mouse or stylus. The userinterface may b e web-based and the geofence 900 may be defined on aserver. The geofence 900 may be a circle, a sphere, in the shape of anyclosed polygon, a closed volume, in two dimensions, in three dimensionsor may travel with a person.

Referring to FIG. 21, the present invention may provide methods andsystems of sending location-based alerts 2102 involving determining thelocation 1202 of a portable electronic facility 300 and sending an alert2102 based on the location 1202 of the portable electronic facility 300.The alert 2102 may be in response to the location of a portableelectronic facility 300 with respect to a geofence 900. The alert 2102may be sent if the portable electronic facility 300 is within or outsidea geofence 900 or within or outside a geofence 900 for a certain periodof time. The alert 2102 may be sent if a portable electronic facility300 enters or exits a geofence 900 or enters or exits a geofence 900 fora certain period of time. An alert 2102 may be contingent on thelocation of other portable electronic facilities 300 or the location ofother portable electronic facilities 300 with respect to a geofence 900.The alert 2102 may be affected by the location of other portableelectronic facilities 300 or the location of other portable electronicfacilities 300 with respect to a geofence 900.

In one embodiment, the geofence 900 may define a place of business. Thealert 2102 may be in response to a certain employee or employer arrivingor not arriving at work. The alert 2102 may also be in response to acertain employee or employer arriving or not arriving at work by aspecified time.

In another embodiment, the geofence 900 may define a home. The alert2102 may be in response to a certain child, teenager or vehicle arrivingor not arriving at home. The alert 2102 may also be in response to acertain child, teenager or vehicle arriving or not arriving at home by aspecified time.

In another embodiment, the geofence 900 may define an airport. The alert2102 may be in response to a passenger arriving or departing. Thegeofence 900 may also define a city. The alert 2102 may be in responseto a passenger or a shipment arriving or departing.

The alert 2102 may be via audio, video, fax, email, instant message,text message, SMS, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, vibration or maystimulate at least one of the five senses. The alert 2102 may becommunicated via one of the following means of communication: SMS, fax,email, instant message, internet protocol, voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA,WAP protocol, internet or text.

Referring to FIG. 22, the present invention may provide methods andsystems of analyzing information related to at least one portableelectronic facility 300 involving transmitting information from the atleast one portable electronic facility 300 and analyzing suchinformation using an analysis engine 2202. The information from one ormore portable electronic facilities 300 may be stored or aggregated. Theanalysis engine 2202 may provide the ability to view location history oranalyze location history. The analysis engine 2202 may also requestadditional information or send alerts 2102.

The analysis engine 2202 may perform analytics on location informationsuch as demographic analysis, predictive analysis and descriptiveanalysis. The analysis may be for retail purposes, marketing purposes orsecurity purposes. The analysis engine 2202 may determine the types ofportable electronic facilities 300 or people at a given location. Theanalysis engine 2202 may determine the class of people at a givenlocation. The class of people may be specified based on the followingcharacteristics: income level, profession, race, ethnicity, gender, sex,sexual orientation, address, age, disposable income level, number ofchildren, education level or health factors. The analysis engine 2202may determine the route by which a person arrived at a location. Theanalysis engine 2202 may also determine the routes by which a class ofpeople arrived at a location. The analysis engine 2202 may alsodetermine the locations of a type of portable electronic facility 300.The information provided by the analysis engine 2202 may includepurchasing information, personal preferences, demographics or consumerpurchasing data relating to individual consumers or classes ofconsumers.

Access to the analysis engine 2202, the system and information may begranted at different access levels. A user may be granted partial orrestricted access via a guest login. It may be that whether a user ispermitted to know the location of another user is determined based onthe access levels of the users.

Referring to FIG. 23, methods and systems disclosed herein may includemethods and systems for verifying a transaction using a portableelectronic facility 300. In such embodiments, the location of a portableelectronic facility 300 may be linked to a location of a transaction2302, such as to verify the presence of a user in proximity to the useof the user's credit card, debit card, portable electronic transactiondevice, or other device. In embodiments the transaction is made usingthe Internet from a user's home computer, and the tracking informationconfirms the presence of the user at home by locating the user inside ahome geofence 900.

Referring to FIG. 24, methods and systems disclosed herein may includemethods and systems for tailoring information to the behavior of a user2402, such as observing the behavior of a user 2402 and communicatinginformation 2404 to the user by a portable electronic facility 300, suchas information 2404 based on the observed behavior of a user 2402. Theobserved behavior 2402 may include behavior that is tied to locations,such as shopping behavior, purchasing behavior, or the like. Inembodiments information may be presented to the user about alternatelocations for shopping or purchasing for alternative, similar orcomplementary goods and services to those being shopped by the user atthe tracked location. In embodiments the tracked behavior may indicatepersonal preferences, may constitute marketing information, or may beobserved or inferred behavior based on past actions of the user.

Referring to FIG. 25, methods and systems disclosed herein may includemethods and systems for providing information 2404 to a portableelectronic facility 300 based on information 2404 received from theportable electronic facility 300, including location information 1100.In embodiments the portable electronic facility 300 may have instantmessaging capabilities, and an instant message may embed the location ofthe user such as a real-world location or an indication of location,such as proximity to a geofence 900, such as designed as “home,” “work,”or the like.

Referring to FIG. 26, a network of portable electronic facilities 300may be provided, allowing communication among portable electronicfacilities 300, including information based on the tracked locations ofthe portable electronic facilities 300. In embodiments information iscommunicated directly among the portable electronic facilities 300,without use of a central server. In embodiments information may becommunicated by SMS, fax, email, instant message, internet protocol,voice, voicemail, GPRS, CDMA, WAP protocol, internet and/or text. Inembodiments the portable electronic facilities 300 may share informationthat includes or is based upon location information, such as a file, amusic file, a movie, a game, an application, a ringtone, a text file, adocument, or an email.

FIGS. 27A-C present several examples of the possible graphical userinterfaces 2702 that may be presented on a portable electronic facility300, such as a mobile phone. The interface may display a map or a menu.FIG. 28 depicts a graphical user interface 2802 providing an overview ofthe locations of all the users in a defined group. The users may beindividual drivers in a fleet of delivery trucks. FIG. 29 providesanother view 2902 of the locations of the users in FIG. 29. The view mayinvolve the use of tiled maps. FIG. 30 depicts a detailed display 3002of the location information for one particular user. The “today” and“yesterday” buttons 3004, 3008 may allow for the rapid toggling betweendata for different dates. FIG. 31 depicts a stop report 3102, asdescribed above, for a particular user.

FIG. 32 depicts the definition of a geofence 900 using a map 3202. FIG.33 shows several icons 3302 that may be assigned to various geofences900, such as to distinguish different geofences 900 that are created orused for different purposes. For example, a geofence may be designatedwith a star to signify its importance, or with an icon representing ahouse to indicate that it is a geofence 900 for a home. FIG. 34 depictsan address book 3402 that may be provided for a user. FIG. 35 presents amore detailed view of one of the entries 3502 in the address book 3402.FIG. 36 depicts a graphical user interface 3602 that may be used todefine alerts using the system. FIG. 37A-37C depict location details asboth lists 3702 and maps 3704. FIG. 38A-38C depict several menus 3802related to storing location-based information 1100, including a menu3804 for finding saved locations, such as by zip code or other data, amenu 3808 displaying detailed locations, and a menu 3810 for displayingoptions related to a location, such as an option to see a map, to senddirections to the location from a particular location, and an option tosend the location information to another user. FIG. 39A-39D depictseveral graphical user interfaces 3902 related to the presentation ofpoints of interest on a portable electronic facility 300, such as aninterface 3904 for finding particular types of location, such as hotels,restaurants, automated teller machines, or gas stations, an interface3908 for showing details of a particular type of location, an interface3910 for offering options related to a particular type of location, suchas the option to see a map, get directions, or call the location, and aninterface 3912 for displaying the results, such as showing a map of thelocation. FIG. 40 presents a graphical user interface 4002 that mayallow a user to send location information, such as via email or voice.FIG. 41 presents a graphical user interface 4102 that may allow a userto input a zip code while traveling. FIGS. 42A-42B present a graphicaluser interface with a setting menu 4202 that may allow a user to varythe settings of the portable electronic facility 300, such as allowing auser to vary the frequency with which a portable electronic deviceobtains location information using an interface 4204.

While the invention has been disclosed in connection with certainpreferred embodiments, other embodiments will be recognized by those ofordinary skill in the art and are encompassed herein. All documentsreferenced herein are hereby incorporated by reference.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:storing, by a server, data defining a plurality of physical locationsand a plurality of geofences each associated with at least one of theplurality of physical locations; monitoring, by the server and based atleast on data received over a network from a web or application resourceoperating on a user device, a current location of the user device;comparing, by an analysis engine associated with the server, the currentlocation of the user device with each of the plurality of geofences;determining, by the analysis engine and based on the comparing, that thecurrent location of the user device is within at least one of theplurality of geofences, the at least one of the plurality of geofencesbeing associated with two or more of the plurality of physicallocations; determining, by the analysis engine for each of the two ormore of the plurality of physical locations, a distance of the currentlocation of the user device from the respective physical location;obtaining, by the analysis engine for each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations, data indicating a number ofinteractions with the respective physical location by a plurality ofother users; assigning, by the analysis engine and based at least on thedistance of the current location of the user device from each of the twoor more of the plurality of physical locations and the data indicatingthe number of interactions with each of the two or more of the pluralityof physical locations by the plurality of other users, a ranking to eachof the two or more of the plurality of physical locations; andtransmitting, from the server to the user device, data that causes theweb or application resource operating on the user device to output, at auser interface of the user device, two or more user-selectable iconseach corresponding to one of the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations, wherein a position of each of the two or moreuser-selectable icons in the user interface of the user device isdetermined based on the assigned ranking of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations.
 2. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein monitoring the current location of the user devicecomprises receiving, by the server over the network from the web orapplication resource operating on the user device, data identifying atleast one of a Wi-Fi signal sensor, GPS coordinates, an IP address, oneor more cellular phone towers, a radio frequency identifier (RFID)transponder, a wireless proximity beacon, or a latitude and longitude.3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein assigning theranking to each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations comprises: assigning the ranking to each of the two or more ofthe physical locations based at least on the distance of the currentlocation of the user device from each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations, the data indicating the number ofinteractions with each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations by the plurality of users, and user-indicated preferences. 4.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein assigning theranking to each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations comprises: assigning the ranking to each of the two or more ofthe physical locations based at least on the distance of the currentlocation of the user device from each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations, the data indicating the number ofinteractions with each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations by the plurality of users, and purchase hi story information.5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein assigning theranking to each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations comprises: assigning the ranking to each of the two or more ofthe physical locations based at least on the distance of the currentlocation of the user device from each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations, the data indicating the number ofinteractions with each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations by the plurality of users, and data indicating a number ofinteractions with the respective physical location by a user associatedwith the user device.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the user device is at least one of a personal computer, mobilephone, PDA, electronic watch, handheld GPS, portable computer, portablemusic player, electronic keychain, camera, handheld device, pager,portable gaming device, and wearable device.
 7. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the two or more user-selectable iconsrepresent points of interest.
 8. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the point of interest is at least one of a merchant,hotel, restaurant, ATM, gas station, residence, school, or health carefacility.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising transmitting, by the server over the network in response todetermining that the current location of the user device is within atleast one of the plurality of geofences, an alert to the user device.10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the alertidentifies at least one coupon for a product or service.
 11. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: storing, by a server, datadefining a plurality of physical locations and a plurality of geofenceseach associated with at least one of the plurality of physicallocations; monitoring, by the server and based at least on location datareceived over a network from a web or application resource operating ona user device, a current location of the user device; comparing, by ananalysis engine associated with the server, the current location of theuser device with each of the plurality of geofences; determining, by theanalysis engine and based on the comparing, that the current location ofthe user device is within at least one of the plurality of geofences,the at least one of the plurality of geofences being associated with twoor more of the plurality of physical locations; assigning, by theanalysis engine, a ranking to the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations based at least on user preference informationprovided by a user of the user device at an interface associated withthe web or application resource before the server receives the locationdata; and transmitting, from the server to the user device, data thatcauses the web or application resource to output, at a user interface ofthe user device, two or more user-selectable icons each corresponding toat least one of the two or more of the plurality of physical locations,wherein a position of each of the two or more user-selectable icons inthe user interface is determined based on the determined ranking of thetwo or more of the plurality of physical locations.
 12. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein monitoring the currentlocation of the user device comprises receiving, by the server over thenetwork from the web or application resource operating on the userdevice, data identifying at least one of a Wi-Fi signal sensor, GPScoordinates, an IP address, one or more cellular phone towers, a radiofrequency identifier (RFID) transponder, a wireless proximity beacon, ora latitude and longitude.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim11, wherein assigning the ranking to the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations comprises: assigning the ranking to the two or moreof the plurality of physical locations based at least on the userpreference information and a respective proximity of each of the two ormore of the plurality of physical locations to the current location ofthe user device.
 14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11,wherein assigning the ranking to the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations comprises: assigning the ranking to the two or moreof the plurality of physical locations based at least on the userpreference information and purchase history information.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein assigning the rankingto the two or more of the plurality of physical locations comprises:assigning the ranking to the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations based at least on the user preference information and a numberof interactions with the respective physical location by a plurality ofother users.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, whereinassigning the ranking to the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations comprises: assigning the ranking to the two or more of theplurality of physical locations based at least on the user preferenceinformation and a number of interactions with the respective physicallocation by the user of the user device.
 17. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 11, wherein the two or more user-selectable iconsrepresent points of interest.
 18. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 11, wherein the point of interest is at least one of a merchant,hotel, restaurant, ATM, gas station, residence, school, or health carefacility.
 19. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, furthercomprising transmitting, by the server over the network in response todetermining that the current location of the user device is within atleast one of the plurality of geofences, an alert to the user device.20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the alertidentifies at least one coupon for a product or service.
 21. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: storing, at an informationrepository associated with a user device, data defining a plurality ofphysical locations and a plurality of geofences each associated with atleast one of the plurality of physical locations; monitoring, by theuser device and based at least on location data obtained by the userdevice, a current location of the user device; comparing, by an analysisengine associated with the user device, the current location of the userdevice with each of the plurality of geofences; determining, by theanalysis engine and based on the comparing, that the current location ofthe user device is within at least one of the plurality of geofences,the at least one of the plurality of geofences being associated with twoor more of the plurality of physical locations; determining, by theanalysis engine for each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations, a distance of the current location of the user device fromthe respective physical location; assigning, by the analysis engine andbased at least on the distance of the current location of the userdevice from each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations, a ranking to each of the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations; and outputting, at a user interface of the userdevice, two or more user-selectable icons each corresponding to one ofthe two or more of the plurality of physical locations, wherein aposition of each of the two or more user-selectable icons in the userinterface of the user device is determined based on the assigned rankingof the two or more of the plurality of physical locations.
 22. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein assigning the rankingto each of the two or more of the plurality of physical locationscomprises: assigning the ranking to each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations based at least on the distance of thecurrent location of the user device from each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations and data indicating a number ofinteractions with each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations by a plurality of other users.
 23. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 21, wherein assigning the ranking to each of the two ormore of the plurality of physical locations comprises: assigning theranking to each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations based at least on the distance of the current location of theuser device from each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations and user preference information provided by a user of the userdevice at an interface associated with a web or application resourcebefore the obtaining the location data.
 24. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 21, wherein assigning the ranking to each of the two ormore of the plurality of physical locations comprises: assigning theranking to each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations based at least on the distance of the current location of theuser device from each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations and purchase history information.
 25. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 21, further comprising: outputting, at the user deviceand in response to determining that the current location of the userdevice is within at least one of the plurality of geofences, an alert toa user of the user device, wherein the alert identifies at least onecoupon for a product or service.
 26. A computer-implemented methodcomprising: storing data defining a plurality of physical locations anda plurality of geofences each associated with at least one of theplurality of physical locations; monitoring a current location of a userdevice based at least on location data that is indicative of the currentlocation of the user device; comparing the current location of the userdevice with each of the plurality of geofences; determining, based onthe comparing, that the current location of the user device is within atleast one of the plurality of geofences, the at least one of theplurality of geofences being associated with two or more of theplurality of physical locations; determining, for each of the two ormore of the plurality of physical locations, a distance of the currentlocation of the user device from the respective physical location;assigning, based at least on the distance of the current location of theuser device from each of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations, a ranking to each of the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations; and transmitting data for causing output, at a userinterface of the user device, of two or more user-selectable icons eachcorresponding to one of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations, wherein a position of each of the two or more user-selectableicons in the user interface of the user device is determined based onthe assigned ranking of the two or more of the plurality of physicallocations.
 27. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, whereinassigning the ranking to each of the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations comprises: assigning the ranking to each of the twoor more of the plurality of physical locations based at least on thedistance of the current location of the user device from each of the twoor more of the plurality of physical locations and data indicating anumber of interactions with each of the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations by a plurality of other users.
 28. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 26, wherein assigning the rankingto each of the two or more of the plurality of physical locationscomprises: assigning the ranking to each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations based at least on the distance of thecurrent location of the user device from each of the two or more of theplurality of physical locations and user preference information providedby a user of the user device at an interface associated with a web orapplication resource before monitoring the current location of the userdevice.
 29. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, whereinassigning the ranking to each of the two or more of the plurality ofphysical locations comprises: assigning the ranking to each of the twoor more of the plurality of physical locations based at least on thedistance of the current location of the user device from each of the twoor more of the plurality of physical locations and purchase historyinformation.
 30. The computer-implemented method of claim 26, furthercomprising: outputting, at the user device and in response todetermining that the current location of the user device is within atleast one of the plurality of geofences, an alert to a user of the userdevice, wherein the alert identifies at least one coupon for a productor service.